Fiona Hill

But of course, he didn't want to hear because his first look at me was like, who are you, you ordinary person?

What the hell do you know?

And, you know, and then he actually literally said, and I've got Rex, who's working on Russia and Rex being Rex Tillerson, you know, who, you know, obviously didn't get much of a chance to, you know, advise him and impart any knowledge either, despite having been the CEO of one of the world's greatest in terms of size companies.

Based on questions and statements I've heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that perhaps somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did.

This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.

The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016.

This is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan congressional reports.

It is beyond dispute, even if some of the underlying details must remain classified.

The impact of the successful 2016 Russian campaign remains evident today.

Our nation is being torn apart.

Yeah, look, when you think about the Russians and you look at the history of Russian interference and Soviet interference before that, even imperial Russia, they always succeed when things are moving in the direction that they're already traveling in.

You know, you have all these expressions about useful idiots, fellow travelers.

You know, they've come down in the law of, you know, Russian influence.

interference and public operations.

And they really succeed where somebody else wants to do just exactly what it is that they want them to do.

And we have a president in Donald Trump who wants to use propaganda himself, who has the same interests as Putin and the Russians do and the Soviets did before about breaking up the Western alliance, about basically taking America off in a different direction.

And of, you know, kind of breaking down the United States democracy for his own interests.

And it was a very similar worldview of Mike makes right.

And, you know, the strong do, you know, what they must and, you know, what they can.

And, you know, the weak are always going to suffer.